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Friday, 18 December 2015

Rain considered as the
blessing of Allah is no more a blessing for the people in Jeddah. The massive
amount of rainfall every year has turned the rainy season into a living
nightmare for the residents of Jeddah. The excitement associated with the
notion of rain is now replaced by fear as the rain brings uncountable problems
for the people as there is no proper system of evacuating water. When the
weather report announces the rain coming everyone starts praying for safety and
protection.

According to the latest
survey, 57 million cubic meters of water was amounted to fall in the form of
rain during last rain in Jeddah. The dams that were built to cater the flood
water back in 2011, after the recent rainfall, reached up to 49 million cubic
meters of water. Although the overwhelming flood that effected Jeddah in the
year (2011-2012) were well managed by the construction of tunnels and pipes
which were supervised by the Saudi Oil Company (Aramco). Due to the current
need, in order to stop Jeddah from sinking the 60 km ring of tunnels that was dug
during the reign of King Faisal, has been stretched out to 300 km. There are
different projects that are being operated in the city of Jeddah to deal with
any kind of flood alarming situation due to heavy rainfall. Aramco and Makkah
Emirate have initiated the flood project which is different from the storm
water project supervised under Jeddah Municipality and Ministry of Municipal
Affairs.

The public seems
uninformed about the projects that are working to control the flood water
during the heaving rainy season. And when it rains, despite of all the
planning, Jeddah sinks into water. Therefore, the media and the other related
departments are taken to task by people on social media. The public expresses
their rage in the form of bitter comments on the social networking sites
against all the departments working on controlling the water levels in rainy
season.

The departments include
Civil Defense department Police forces, Traffic police, Red Crescent as well as
the numerous volunteers who helped and supported state and private
organizations’ efforts. Due to the prediction of the heavy rain in the last
week, Crisis Management Center warned public against going out, except for any
emergency purposes. Although the flood levels this year that have been lower than
previous years but the residents Of Jeddah have to face the similar hardship
that they faced during the heavy flood back in 2011-2012.

People have to stay in
houses as roads and streets were over flowing with rain water. Many of the
resident’s property was washed away by the flood water. Thereis a dire need of
constructing a well-planned infrastructure to combat the flood water
effectively in the coming years. No matter, many projects are working
simultaneously but people suffer every time when it rains .The citizens are
clueless who to blame as they encounter hazardous situations frequently when it
rains in Jeddah.